Matteo Salvini retreats on migrant expulsions

Police check the identities of migrants at a camp in Rome. Matteo Salvini campaigned on a pledge to repatriate migrantsYARA NARDI/REUTERS

An election promise to expel half a million illegal immigrants from Italy, made by the interior minister, would take 80 years to meet because a lack of progress in repatriating them has scuppered his plans, he has said.

Before elections in March Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party, who has become joint deputy prime minister and the most powerful minister in the new populist government, campaigned on a pledge to repatriate migrants.

He promised 100,000 expulsions in his first year in office but told the Italian radio station RTL: “The way things are today we’ll need 80 years to expel them all.”